Viorel Mateianu (1 June 1938 – 25 November 1997) was a Romanian football player and coach. Club career Mateianu was born in Lipănești, Prahova and started playing football in the Romanian lower leagues at Flacăra Boldești and Progresul CPCS București. He made his Divizia A debut on 25 August 1957, playing for Progresul București in a 3–2 victory in which he scored a goal against Energia Petroșani, shortly after his debut, Mateianu was nicknamed "Little Alfredo Di Stéfano". In 1957, during a football tournament held in San Sebastián, Spain in which he participated with one of Romania's youth teams, Mateianu had an offer to play for Real Madrid, which he refused, not wanting to risk to never see his parents again, as he could have not been allowed to return to the country by the communist regime. In 1958 he went to play for three seasons and a half at Știința Cluj, where he scored 21 goals in 72 Divizia A appearances, a period in which he also graduated the Faculty of Law. Then he went at Steaua București where he won the 1961–62 Cupa României, opening the score in the 5–1 victory from the final against Rapid București. He returned to Progresul București where he spent 8 seasons, after which he was allowed by the communist authorities to play in Western Europe, going in West Germany at TUS Wannsee Berlin and Alemannia Aachen where he ended his playing career. Mateianu has a total of 220 matches played and 62 goals scored in Divizia A. International career Viorel Mateianu played six games and scored two goals at international level for Romania, making his debut under coach Augustin Botescu at the 1960 European Nations' Cup quarter-finals where they were defeated by Czechoslovakia, who advanced to the final tournament. He played three games and scored two goals at the 1966 World Cup qualifiers, making his last appearance for the national team in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss against East Germany. International goals Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mateianu goal. Coaching career In 1973, just a few months after returning from Germany where he graduated a coaching course, Mateianu was given the role of head coach at his former club, Progresul București, then playing in Divizia B, managing to promote the team back to Divizia A in the 1975–76 season, being